Butting blades for tobacco stemming machines



' 3 c. w. GOOCH, JR.. ET AL 1,831,496

BUTTING BLADES FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES lnnentot czaizo/wc W GooCLfCZ'. and B AZcL JaJ' {Ma/molt:

Filed April 25. 1931 (morneg Patented Oct. 11, 1932 NETE STATES PATENT OFFICE CLAIBORNE W. GOOCI-I, JR., AND ALCIDAS J. MARCOT'IE, F LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNORS TO UNITED CIGARETTE MACHINE COMPANY, INC., OF LYNCHB'URG, VIRGINIA, A CORPORATION OF VIRGINIA IBUTTING BLADES FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Application filed April 23,

The present invention relates to improved butting blades for tobacco stemming machines which are adapted totake the place of the butting devices as fully described in U. S.

. Patent No. 1,212,441 of January 16, 1917.

It is an object of the present invention to utilize the blades for cleaning both the butts and for stemming, and it may be used in a stemming machine similar to the one shown in U. S. Patent No. 1,538,662 of May 19, 1925.

It is a further object of this invention to provide the blades so that each individual blade will be rigid; furthermore, each blade is provided with a plurality of individual I. rigid arms having cutting edges.

Further objects will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a side view of two sets of cooperating butting blade assemblies,

Fig. 2 is an end view of the blade assembliss and leaf gripper, and

Fig. 3 is a side View of one of the blades.

It is, of course, obvious that such blade assemblies can be used in any specific type threaded at the other end to accommodate the clamping nut 6 have cut-out portions 7 which are adapted to receive a suitable wrench to tighten the stemming devices 3 and spacing rings 2 on sleeve 4. Sleeve 4 is further provided with a suitable setscrew adapted to clamp the sleeve securely on an operating shaft, not shown. As shown in Fig. 1, the periphery of the blades of one assembly projects a slight distance beyond the periphery of the blades of the other set and the blades are arranged in staggered relation.

Each device, as shown in Fig. 3, is provided with a plurality of rigid blades 8 which are radially arranged and any suitable num- 1931. Serial No. 532,302.

ber can be used, but, in the preferred construction, as shown on the drawing, there are $121 arms equally spaced from one another, that is, 60 apart. At the extreme end of each arm there is an approximately fiat surface, 9 which can be of any desired width; and the blades are of sufiicient thickness to be rigid laterally and as a matter of fact in all directions and can be made of any suitable material. Each device has a central perforation 10 to accommodate the sleeve on which the assemblies are mounted and each blade has a cutting edge or, as a matter of fact, two cutting edges 13 on opposite sides of the leading face of the blade relative to the rotation of the device.

As disclosed in the patents referred to, the butting blades are adpted to remove a portion of the leaf from the thickened or butt end of the stem so that thereafter such stems can be gripped by suitable grippers to remove the portion of the stem desired. For the purpose of removing the leaves from the thickened or butt end of the stem, they are held by any suitable conveying means, such as by belts 11 mounted on wheels 12. These belts carry the leaves along through the butt ing blades, and, as shown in Fig. 2, the to bacco leaves move straight forward while the blade assemblies 1 move in opposite directions, that is, the upper blades of Fig. 2 move in a clockwise direction and the lower blades move in a counterclockwise direction, as shown by the arrows. T he arrow in Fig. 1 indicates the path of travel of the tobacco leaves through the butting blades and this is, of course, carried out by means of the conveyor belts.

We claim as our invention p 1. A leaf-stripping assembly for tobacco stemming and butting machines, comprising a plurality of stemming devices, each device having a plurality of rigid blades.

2. A leaf stripping unit for tobacco stemming and butting machines, comprising a plurality of rigid blades.

In testimony whereof, We affix our signatures.

CLAIBORNE WATTS GOOCH, JR.

ALOIDAS JOSEPH MARCOTTE. 

